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Fighting For The Forests: Grassroots Resistance To Mining In Northern Ecuador, Glen Kuecker Mar 2007

Fighting For The Forests: Grassroots Resistance To Mining In Northern Ecuador, Glen Kuecker

History Faculty publications

The history of a grassroots struggle against proposed mining projects in the Ecuadorian community of Junín reveals the centrality to its development of a “colono mentality” augmented by the conscientization of liberation theology. Links established between local organizers and NGOs in Ecuador and elsewhere helped the community to raise the costs of development sufficiently to drive the mining company away. A subsequent rise in the price of copper altered the comparative-advantage formula again, however, and a new mining company is seeking to win community members’ hearts and minds. While a Gramscian war of position is appropriate under present circumstances, it …


International Environmental Justice: Building The Natural Assets Of The World’S Poor, Krista Harper, S. Ravi Rajan Jan 2007

International Environmental Justice: Building The Natural Assets Of The World’S Poor, Krista Harper, S. Ravi Rajan

Krista M. Harper

In recent years, vibrant social movements have emerged across the world to fight for environmental justice –- for more equitable access to natural resources and environmental quality, including clean air and water. In seeking to build community rights to natural assets, these initiatives seek to advance simultaneously the goals of environmental protection and poverty reduction. This paper sketches the contours of struggles for environmental justice within and among countries, and illustrates with examples primarily drawn from countries of the global South and the former Soviet bloc. This working paper is also accessible at the folllowing URL: http://www.peri.umass.edu/236/hash/28d064d65f/publication/107/ A newer, revised …